Dulce de Leche

This past weekend a friend of ours had a huge party.  They asked me to bake.  A few restrictions; no nuts, mini bite sized - everything, and keep it simple.  No problem.  I made lemon squares, gooey, fudgy brownies, whole wheat-oat chocolate chunk cookies, and a vanilla bean cupcake with dulce de leche butter cream.

About a week before the party I started collecting provisions.  My first stop was Surfas.  I have talked about Surfas in the past and I am always overjoyed to have an excuse to shop there. After collecting most of what I needed, I simply could not find the dulce de leche.  They were out of it.  I knew I could make my own, but sometimes, when baking for a crowd, I do look for shortcuts. No problem, I said to myself, I will just make it.  How hard could it be?  I soon found out, not hard at all.

I will never buy pre-made, store bought Dulce de Leche, every again.  This is one of the easiest things I have every made and I am kicking myself for not doing it sooner.  Dulce de leche will be lining my refrigerator shelves along side my homemade caramel and my homemade hot fudge sauce.  I just adore finding new discoveries!

Dulce de Leche

make a little or make a ton!

instructions:

• remove all the paper from several cans of sweetened condensed milk (14 oz. cans)

• put 2 - 4 cans in a dutch oven.  fill with water.  the water should cover the cans of milk.

• bring to a boil.  once boiled, turn down to simmer, cover slightly, with a lid and let simmer for 2-4 hours.  the longer it simmers, the thicker the caramel becomes.  I simmered mine for 3 hours.

• remove the cans from the water and let cool for one hour.  

• once cooled open the cans and transfer the thick caramel to a glass jar (I used ball jars).  let cool completely before attaching the lid.  

• this will store in the fridge for ever!

enjoy!

Dulce de Leche Buttercream + a cupcake

The past two weeks have been  very, very busy.  Between Miguel's birthday, beginning of school, the Jewish New Year and catering a party for a bunch of "ladies", I am happy to finally be on the other side!

At the last minute, the hostess of the party(that I was catering) called to say they needed some sort of "cupcake" so they could honor the birthday girl.  My original plan for desserts were the bite sized ricotta cheesecakes (here), apple galettes (here), and lemon tartlettes (recipes to follow).  Four desserts was a little over the top.  I opted to swap out the galettes and replace them with these little chocolate cupcakes.  Everyone was glad I did!

I made a batch of my favorite devil's food chocolate cupcake recipe (here).  Topped them with the most delicious dulce de leche frosting and finished them off with crushed, chocolate covered cocoa nibs.  This was one fantastic creation!

Dulce de Leche Buttercream w/devils food cupcakes
yield:  36 cupcakes 2 oz. cupcakes


ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 Tbls. heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla
4-5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
pinch of salt
3/4 cups prepared Dulce de leche
1/2 cup crushed chocolate covered cocoa nibs

instructions:
• in the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter.
• gradually add the sifted powdered sugar
• add the cream and the vanilla and beat on medium speed until smooth.
• add the Dulce de leche and combine on low speed
• depending upon how you like your frosting, you may want to add more sugar
• scoop frosting into a piping bag fitted with desired tip
• top with crushed cocoa nibs

note: I used 2 oz. souffle cups, filled them 2/3's full and baked them at 350* for 18-22 minutes